First Look: Schmap for the iPhone

Ah, this isn't any ordinary map application. Sure it'll give you all the fun stuff that maps usually offer, but it also brings the iPhone's already unique controls to a whole 'nother level. Schmap for the iPhone is noteworthy because of its ability to take advantage of the accelerometer: portrait mode lists the attractions while rotating it to landscape mode displays the attractions on a googlemap-ified map.

Because it isn't June yet, we're still dealing with web apps, so basically punch in www.schmap.com in Safari and you'll be able to use this slick and innovative way of finding hotels, restaurants, bars etc. on your iPhone. Granted, it's only limited to select cities (mostly the big ones) and Schmap itself is in beta, it will obviously grow and mature over time.

Under brief testing, I found the layout to be clean and straightforward, giving you short descriptions, reviews, and pictures on popular attractions. Also, the ability to quickly see it all on a map is a wonderful bonus.

Reader comments

First Look: Schmap for the iPhone

Love 'em or hate 'em, the long wait for the iPhone native SDK has really led to some really interesting web apps. Probably pushed the dev boundaries a fair bit in just a year... With the coming software as services model, hybrid client-cloud apps will leverage this stuff into the stratosphere..